I would imagine the gibbon would have had to be hand-raised, to behave that way with people - particularly strangers.
I've no doubt it does act as a good enrichment for the gibbon and other animals that people are able to interact with.... I just get very nervous whenever I hear about people being able to handle adult wild animals when they have no experience with the species.
"Keeper for a day" programs are a great awareness and money raising scheme for any institution. But, I just fail to see why it's necessary for people to actually handle the animals as part of this. Fair enough if keepers handle the gibbon/ mandrill etc, if the animal actually needs it, but they have a personal relationship with the animal so there's far less risk involved.
'Vo' is a male White-handed Gibbon , at least 40 years old , who has been in quite a few collections over the years , arrived at Cefn-yr-Erw from Southport .
'Oliver' was born in Guernsey in 1986 , arrived at Penscynor in 1989 and was later transferred to Cefn-yr-Erw with his mate , who I think has since died .
I was shocked at that Flickr gallery and the terrible treatment of the Cefn-yr-Erw chimps. Maltesers and pizza is one thing, but they're actually letting them drink tea out of plastic pop bottles.
What on earth happened to maintaining standards? Surely chimps are supposed to drink tea out of china cups? And while we're at it, why can't they have a small bicycle for further enrichment?
